If you haven't been keeping up with the news over the past few days, a lot is going down in Los Angeles. Last week, protesters started demonstrating against what they saw as heavy-handed attempts by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, to crack down on illegal immigration. Most of the protests were peaceful, but some grew contentious. Rather than let local officials handle things, President Donald Trump sent in U.S. military personnel, a rare and extraordinary step. That puts him in conflict with California governor Gavin Newsom, who has sued the Trump administration over what he calls an "unprecedented power grab."
Newsom's argument is basically that, by sending in federal troops, Trump has exacerbated a tense-but-manageable situation and turned it into a political spectacle, causing the violence he says he's trying to stop with the ultimate aim of normalizing the use of military force against protesters. As for Trump's argument, you can hear it below in a couple of videos Newsom posted on social media, edited with AI so that Trump's words are read in the voice of the tyrannical Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars:
A ONCE GREAT AMERICAN CITY HAS BEEN OCCUPIED! pic.twitter.com/R3EnZNIk55
— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) June 10, 2025
LOS ANGELES WOULD HAVE BEEN COMPLETELY OBLITERATED! pic.twitter.com/dmTcCD3Fsh
— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) June 10, 2025
The second video has footage from The Empire Strikes Back in the background. I think the first one may have footage from The Clone Wars behind it but I'm not sure.
Politicians casting their political rivals as supervillains is nothing new, but generative AI gives them the ability to do it on a new level. It gives them the power to do all kinds of things. I'm reminded of the AI-generated video Trump shared a while back showing us his vision of turning the Gaza Strip into a resort destination. In that scenario, what happened to all the people living there now? The AI didn't say.
These new videos from Newsom are another example of what political battles can look like in the 2020s. Newsom, who many think may make a run at the presidency in 2028, is throwing himself into this fight, which is still ongoing, so we see more of this kind of thing before things settle down.
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